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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Lia tell her mother when she asks, "What's going on?"

2. What does Lia tells Sam about her family?

3. Who does Becky meet when she takes Ava for a walk to try to calm her?

4. At the hospital, Ayinde's mother wants to be called what?

5. What does Kelly think when Oliver cries?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is the symbolism of Lia tucking her hair under the baseball cap as she heads for the Parents Together Grief group?

2. Kelly jokes, "It takes a village to feed my child." What does this mean?

3. What changes Kelly's almost perfect world to a world of fear and panic in "June Kelly"?

4. What are some reasons Becky refuses or does not want to speak to Mimi, her mother-in-law?

5. What constitutes Lia's inability to come to grips with her baby's death?

6. Ayinde is experiencing pain and suffering when first introduced in "April Ayinde". Usually Ayinde is one that appears to have it all. In what ways is Ayinde experiencing pain and suffering?

7. Why does Kelly panic when she finds out that Steve wants to become a teacher?

8. In "August Becky," what breakthroughs does Lia make with the loss of her son?

9. What is the symbolism of Mimi wearing a white dress to Becky and Andrew's wedding?

10. How does the "smelly monstrosity of a couch that the neighbor was throwing away" give Kelly flashbacks of her childhood?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

How is Ayinde affected by learning of her son's heart murmur? How does this "hole in the heart" to Ayinde's son reflect the injury that Ayinde has sustained on an emotional level? What do Ayinde's son's prospects for health imply about Ayinde's health and the health of her friends?

Essay Topic 2

Of all the main characters, Becky is the character who struggles with physical appearance. She looks in the mirror and questions whether she is pregnant or just fat. Although Becky has struggled with her body image most of her life, the pregnancy really makes her draw attention to her weight. She has hoped that through the pregnancy she could relax with the weight issue, but it has not. How do this disappointment and her struggle with weight loss and body image affect her view of pregnancy?

Essay Topic 3

Both Ayinde and Kelly consider divorce at some point during the story. Ayinde thinks of a chapter from Baby Success that focuses on babies as the ones that really matter and that babies do better with a mommy and daddy under the same roof. Do you agree with this advice? Why / why not? Should Ayinde have patched things up with Richard? Why / why not? Do you think either Kelly or Ayinde should have followed through with a divorce? Why / why not?

(see the answer keys)

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